Review your weekly timetable
With an idea of the tasks you need to complete each month, you can plan your time over the coming weeks.
Electronic timetables and calendars are available through Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Calendar. These enable you to plan on a monthly or weekly view and have the advantage of providing reminders, even alarms, direct to your desktop.
If you're lab- or field-based, however, a traditional paper diary may be more useful.
When allocating time for particular tasks consider 2 questions:
1) When do you work best and for how long?
If you're not an early morning person, don't schedule work to start at 6am.
If you slump in the mid-afternoon, schedule a break at this time. Don't try to work against yourself - it will just make the task more difficult.
2) What sort of time (length and quality) does the task require?
Example 1
If a particular experiment will require close attendance for 2-3 hours, obviously you will need to schedule it in an extended block of time. But if the experiment is straightforward and mechanical, think about choosing a 'low energy' time - say, 4pm to 7pm or 7pm to 10pm.
Example 2
Finding and reading 5 recent journal articles may be a task on your list this week. You can think of this as half a day's work. However, the task can be broken down and interrupted. Locating and reading a journal article may only take 20-30 minutes so you can consider scheduling this task over 5 times when you have an odd half-hour between other commitments.
Example 3
Part of your work for a literature review in an Arts or humanities project might require a deep understanding of a particular theoretical approach. There may not be a point at which you can consider such a task as 'finished'. Consider this as an ongoing task that you need to allocate time for each week over a longer period. You might divide your weekly time between primary texts, and secondary sources that can provide alternative points of view.
If English is not your first language...
The further development of your English language skills is an important task that you should make time for. As you're studying at UNE, you'll already possess evidence that your proficiency level is good enough for you to get started on your chosen project. This should give you confidence in your ability to learn more and move to a higher level still.
You'll need to take an active interest in English and in how it is used - for instance:
Try to pick up colloquial expressions and ways of talking - you might be surprised to note how frequently these are used, especially at formal occasions like Postgraduate Seminars.
Decide how you will deal with new technical vocabulary you meet in your research. How will you gain an understanding of what these new key words mean? How will you record these meanings for future reference? How will you learn how the words should be pronounced?
Studying in an English-medium environment offers great opportunities for developing your English - but you should see English development work as a necessity, not an option, at the postgraduate level. When making your study timetable, be sure you allocate some time to learning more English!
Electronic timetables and calendars are available through Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Calendar. These enable you to plan on a monthly or weekly view and have the advantage of providing reminders, even alarms, direct to your desktop.
If you're lab- or field-based, however, a traditional paper diary may be more useful.
When allocating time for particular tasks consider 2 questions:
1) When do you work best and for how long?
If you're not an early morning person, don't schedule work to start at 6am.
If you slump in the mid-afternoon, schedule a break at this time. Don't try to work against yourself - it will just make the task more difficult.
2) What sort of time (length and quality) does the task require?
Example 1
If a particular experiment will require close attendance for 2-3 hours, obviously you will need to schedule it in an extended block of time. But if the experiment is straightforward and mechanical, think about choosing a 'low energy' time - say, 4pm to 7pm or 7pm to 10pm.
Example 2
Finding and reading 5 recent journal articles may be a task on your list this week. You can think of this as half a day's work. However, the task can be broken down and interrupted. Locating and reading a journal article may only take 20-30 minutes so you can consider scheduling this task over 5 times when you have an odd half-hour between other commitments.
Example 3
Part of your work for a literature review in an Arts or humanities project might require a deep understanding of a particular theoretical approach. There may not be a point at which you can consider such a task as 'finished'. Consider this as an ongoing task that you need to allocate time for each week over a longer period. You might divide your weekly time between primary texts, and secondary sources that can provide alternative points of view.
If English is not your first language...
The further development of your English language skills is an important task that you should make time for. As you're studying at UNE, you'll already possess evidence that your proficiency level is good enough for you to get started on your chosen project. This should give you confidence in your ability to learn more and move to a higher level still.
You'll need to take an active interest in English and in how it is used - for instance:
Try to pick up colloquial expressions and ways of talking - you might be surprised to note how frequently these are used, especially at formal occasions like Postgraduate Seminars.
Decide how you will deal with new technical vocabulary you meet in your research. How will you gain an understanding of what these new key words mean? How will you record these meanings for future reference? How will you learn how the words should be pronounced?
Studying in an English-medium environment offers great opportunities for developing your English - but you should see English development work as a necessity, not an option, at the postgraduate level. When making your study timetable, be sure you allocate some time to learning more English!
